I Feel Like We're Catching Up A Little

After a month of hyperdrive development, it seems as though we're getting more accustomed to the pace. No, Charlie isn't slowing down at all, it just feels like Beck and I are finally able to keep pace with her... at least for a couple days!!

We're so lucky to have this beautiful little girl. She has been more adorable, more entertaining, and more lovable than we ever imagined. And each day brings more smiles.

I remember back a few years when I watched my niece Maddie crawling all over her Grandparents house (my sister-in-laws parents house). She was the fastest crawler I'd ever seen. I remember my brother Jim and sister-in-law Kathy reminding each other that she's "just a baby," when she was getting into things.

Honestly, I'm not sure if it was the same visit, but I remember those two things pretty distinctly about my niece when she was real young. (They live in Oregon).

I remember thinking, "It must be hard to not be angry or upset with your baby when she does something wrong, but you just have to remember that she doesn't know any better."

I'm not really sure if this is what my brother and his wife meant when they said it, but that's what I got out of it... and I think about it all the time.

Charlie likes to scale "Mt. Daddy" these days, and she is getting quite good at it. In fact, so good that she goes fastest when she uses my ears and nose to hold on to. She also will stand over me and whack me in the head when she's reached the "summit".

I keep telling myself that she doesn't realize that she's whacking me pretty good, and truthfully, I just enjoy being able to play with her.

How fun. Just knowing the amount of learning going on in her head right now... Amazing.

Struggling to Keep Up!

I am struggling to find time for the "extra" stuff these days. As most of you know, Beck and I are very fortunate to be able to both spend a couple of days a week with Charlie, on our own... and we're both able to dedicate specific days for our work.

The thing is, when do you do the "extra" stuff?

Charlie has spent the last 5 weeks in over-drive developmentally. She started to crawl at the beginning of June, and it's been a race ever since.

First the crawling was very difficult for her, and she became dedicated to getting it down. Then, Daddy propped her up against a laundry basket so she could learn to kneel and that's all she wanted to do... then it was hanging onto the same basket while she stood.

Now of course... only 5 weeks later she has mastered kneeling (whether she has to pull herself up or not), and she is working herself silly trying to pull herself to a standing position. She is so determined it's funny!

With all this going on, we are finding it very difficult to keep up.

I should be working on a video edit right now, but Charlie is sleeping in her swing, and I need to add music to the project. I have to hear it, so I have to wait until later tonight.

My point here is this: We're really enjoying ourselves. Everyone has constantly said, "enjoy this time, enjoy this time," since Charlie was born. We've taken the advice.

So I'd like to apologize for not being very timely with video and blogging over the last few weeks. Quite frankly, by the time our day is over, Beck and I have been crashing at 9:00 or 10:00pm.

I am on final edits for "Charlie Learns to Crawl - Part 2". I probably should have given away so much here, but for those of you who regularly read my blog, you deserve an "inside scoop"!!

A Change In Perspective

To me, that's one of the most of the important things a person can do for themselves. Change their perspective that is. It's funny how we get so caught up in the day to day issues that fill our lives that we can't see the forest for the trees.

Most of the time, it's just a matter of taking a "fresh" look at something, rather than continuing with an old train of thought.

A friend of mine uses this phrase when he wants to remind people that their problems are small on the big scale of things: "Remember... there are 6 billion people in China who don't even know your name." It's a coaching thing... you may not understand that one, but I think it's hilarious.

All of this has very little to do with why I was compelled to write this blog though. You see, our family has recently had our perspective changed slightly. Less than a year ago, we were nervous and scared, and wondering if we could actually be good parents.

Now, after nearly 8 months, we've had some valuable experience and have a 8 of our friends and family who have just had babies or are expecting this summer.

We've gone from the people asking advice of everyone, to the people being asked!! Kind of scary, because we really don't know what we're doing!! We just follow the books we read.

My overall point to this is about perspective. I've blogged a lot about my buddy telling me that I just "won't understand having a baby until [I] have one." And that's were I'm leading with my meandering thoughts here.

As a parent, there is an unspoken language amongst other parents. The knowing looks, the compassionate smile.

The other night, Beck and I were walking with Charlie up to our grocery store. On the way, we passed a young Dad coming out of Subway. He was pushing his son (probably 6 months). His son was hanging over the side of the stroller looking at the ground, for what reason, nobody knew. The Dad looked up at us as we passed each other, shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes with a smile. No words were spoken, but we all COMPLETELY understood each other.

An entire conversation had just taken place, with NO words uttered. This is my point (finally). We would never have related to this scene 9 months ago, and now we have something in common with a whole world of families out there that we never knew.

Just a little change in perspective.